What the Success of Backrooms (A24) Teaches Young Creatives
“Backrooms” writer-director Kane Parsons (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The INDUSTRY has always had gatekeepers. Insert whatever creative medium you’re in to, someone is gatekeeping the financial decisions to platform the work. Studios, agents, casting, galleries… yeah, yeah, yeah.
And like all institutions, systems of approval rise and fall to manage the money associated with distributing that medium and making a profit from it.
Enter the internet. It’s been said that God created men, but Samuel Colt made them equal. If the gun equalized man, perhaps the internet can be said to equalize the creative.
The machine of the industry cranks on, BUT the internet has allowed for more talent to be seen & funded, allowing for even Hollywood to put funding behind what-the-people-want. For example, two wildly successful indie horror films that came out in May 2026.
Backrooms (A24) and Obsession (Focus Features) each have earned $200 million globally, making them record-shattering theatrical hits despite being produced on small budgets. Both films are also helmed by untraditional directors; Kane Parsons and Curry Barker built their audiences on YouTube. Backrooms director, Kane Parsons, is a wee 20-years-old!
Parsons launched his YouTube channel (Kane Pixels) in 2015; beginning with gaming content, his experimental filmmaking found an unexpected audience. Based on the internet horror legend (see: creepypasta), Parsons posted The Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2022, earning millions of views in the first few days. He continued the series, amassing more than 197 million views on YouTube.
Seeing the earning potential, Hollywood came to him. Apparently, Parsons had been in talks with A24 about a Backrooms movie since he was 16. At 20, Parsons is the youngest director debut a movie at number one at the domestic box office.
For him, it didn’t start with going to the right school or creating something that had “mass appeal.” Just putting creepy stuff on YouTube, experimenting with stuff that was interesting to him. As Parsons is heavily quoted: “YouTube, really more than just being a cultural reference for me, has been how I know how to do any of the stuff I do.” — a statement coming at no surprise to Gen Z.
So our lesson.
Parsons made work first, and then the meetings came. So, start making stuff.
What do I make? First and foremost, he wasn’t making content to impress executives. He made content that engaged an audience (ie himself). His idea didn’t have to be appealing to Hollywood, but the attention of his audience was compelling enough to back a feature film.
The internet has fundamentally changed what it means to have an audience, and by extension, what it means to have a career.
Also, if you like horror films that aren’t very graphic, but are psychologically distressing, check out Backrooms while it’s still in theaters.
